Artist Don Quade created Jardin de Oportuniadades (Garden of Opportunity) for the gala's auction. His wife, Grace, is pictured with him. Photo by Steve Peterson, Special to The Denver Post

Whether a college education is a right or a privilege can be argued ’til the cows come home, but in the end, one thing’s for sure: They’re expensive.

And it doesn’t pay not to have one.

Since its start in 1949, the Latin American Educational Foundation has awarded college scholarships to 5,400 students from low-income families throughout Colorado, and much of the money for those grants is raised at a gala dinner held every year in Denver. The event usually has headline entertainment — this year, the Grammy-winning musical group Ozomatli and “Mom comic” Debi Gutierrez — plus silent and live auctions and the presentation of the Sol Trujillo National Lifetime Leadership Award.